Some of you may
remember certain person mentioning the “Doña Tota’s boldo tea” for relieving stomach aches.
Let me inform you that it seems not to be such a funny fiction, people;
actually, these so called old wives’ tales have become a fascinating object of
study for several scientists.
Even
though these may not contribute very much in our memory as a vast number of
grannies tend to say, raisins can be a good remedy for our teeth. Dentists
usually recommend not to consume raisins provided the high amount of sugar that
they have; however, a study conducted by the microbiologist Christine Wu from
the University of Illinois in Chicago led to find out that raisins contain five
chemicals which are able to destroy several oral microorganisms such as the streptococcus, the major
causative of cavities in our teeth, and those are: oleanolic acid, oleanolic
aldehyde, betulin, betulinic acid and 5 - (hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural.
For those girls who became obsessed with their figure
and drink no other thing but green tea in the evening, there is spectacular
news: apart from its polyphenols and tannins that burn your fat and help you
lose weight—if you combine it with a balanced diet an exercise, of course—it
was proven in animal testing conducted by the molecular toxicologist Thomas
Gasiewicz of the University of Rochester, NY that a compound named
epigallocatechingallate—also known as EGCG—can alter the structure of HSP90,
one of the proteins responsible for cancer. This does not mean, nevertheless,
that it is 100% assured that green tea will cure cancer, since this has not
been proven yet in humans.
So, do you still think that Doña Tota’s boldo tea
story is just an old wives’ tale or you may give it a try some time?
